Monday, February 6, 2012

72 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I know you will find me, Linkara.You always find a way to succeed.Impossible odds have never stopped you.Mechakara, Lord Vyce, MissingNo., they could not beat you.Even though we are currently apart right now, that still won't change the fact that you are my friend.I will stand with you even to the very end.We will finish Mechakara once and for all, together.

While the comics look goofy indeed, I respect the fact that at least someone remembered Tatanga. I've always wanted some of the classic Mario villains to return in some form (Tatanga, Wart, Smithy, etc. Even the Koopalings managed to make it back in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.)

Also, I almost kinda squee'd when you held up the Super Mario Land cartridge, it's good to see support for the classic games.

I know you said you're not much of a gamer but have you completed the game yet (going on the assumption that you've only recently acquired the game and then played it on your GBA)?

Oh gameboy. It's fun stupid unlike Countdown or Marvelle or OMD or a lot of DC Reboot. Super Mario Land game for gameboy. I forgotten about that game till I saw the commercial at the end. I had that one. Maybe still do around here somewhere. Probably doesn't work though.Oh and the airplane 2 clips. Airplane my favorite movie but 2? I have actually suggested it for Nostalgia critic. Though I am next week looking forward to see what the double feature will be to end the current storyline. Hm. Image/Sonic maybe or Doctor Who (which would be ironic since first issue of IDW classic series with Collin Baker doctor comes out this week). Sorry I'm on a bit of a doctor who thing lately with buying several dvds and finding classics on netflix on my roku.

As it turns out, the Gameboy comic would've eventually revealed that Herman was hallucinating the entire thing (it was cancelled before that plot point was reached). This begs the question as to how exactly everyone else saw it, but whatever.

I couldn't stop laughing at the contrast between Herman and the game characters in the panel where their telling him to quickly learn how to drive a semi. There is no way you can look at that panel and not think that the true interpretation of these comics is the story of Herman frightening descent into madness.

Tannis did grow up to become an astronaut but she was more famous for her long none stop drive to Florida!

Nice that was a great twist on the "Bees, My God" bit! :D

This does look like an awesomely cheesy bad comic! And your Mario sounds more Irtish than Italian! :DAnd the one dude was a bit more of a little douche in this one! And I'm surprised no Norman Bates jokes on him!

Was there a Captain N comic made?!

Was there a Pollo bit in there somewhere? Just curious because of the titlecard art!

"As it turns out, the Gameboy comic would've eventually revealed that Herman was hallucinating the entire thing (it was cancelled before that plot point was reached). This begs the question as to how exactly everyone else saw it, but whatever."

Everyone else saw Herman running crazily claiming to be Tatanga. Tatanga is the manifestation of Herman's insanity while Mario represents the last piece of his rational mind. Herman wants the madness to stop but secretly prays that Mario never wins so he will never have to find out if those poor children he murder where actually real or just another delusion.

The Hijack a plane and force it to fly to Florida so they can take over Disneyworld. But deciding that it is traveling too slowly, they instead divert to Cape Canaveral (a mere 60 miles from their intended destination) so they can steal the faster shuttle so it won't take so long?

I don't have a problem with Mario being the hero because... well... being a hero of multiple stories is basically his calling. But there were more games for Gameboy then Super Mario land and some of them were even owned by Nintendo. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and the Donkey Kong Land trilogy, to name a few.

I think, the Pollo-Bit is to find in this commentary-section. *smiles*Nice point to include said section. ^^

I most certainly liked the review. The "Bees, my god"-thing was funny and ... but maybe it is just me, Tannis's and Bekkys Mother remindet me of Gates McFadden in the first panel. Just have a close look.

Funny, to mention the other two kids from the first comic (twice), and their further fate.

Actually, the Captain N comic came BEFORE the cartoon. And it actually had Samus in it. Somehow, the producers of the cartoon had "never heard of" Samus when they were making the cartoon, despite Mother Brain being the main villain. I have no idea how that works.

From what I understand, the Captain N comic is only slightly better than the cartoon. Which isn't saying much at all.

I went off on a tangum in my post last week, so I want to explain why I look forward to storyline bits.

It's because it builds tension. How can we get pumped for a conclusion that we have no expectations for? The finale of the storyline is just next week, and we know almost nothing about it. We know something is going to happen, but we have no idea what or why we should be excited about it.

Also, if you don't put storyline bits in your videos for a while, it feels like your is ignoring the fan-base. For example, like how Valve refuses to talk about Half-Life 2: Episode 3 after it being 4 years overdue (speaking of Valve, loved the Portal 2 clip).

Now I'm not complaining about the hard work you put in your videos, but this past month has felt like you pleasing the part of your fan-base that hates storylines.

"It's because it builds tension. How can we get pumped for a conclusion that we have no expectations for? The finale of the storyline is just next week, and we know almost nothing about it. We know something is going to happen, but we have no idea what or why we should be excited about it."

Well, I am sorry about the lack of storyline content up until now. As with everything, the problem is time. I was HOPING to put in a big storyline bit at the end of this video, but in addition to the crossover with the Nostalgia Critic coming tomorrow, I had to record 5 cameos for people. Simply put I ran out of time.

In addition, the last few months have been hectic with storyline stuff AND conventions AND Christmas, so needless to say it's been a touch busy, so I wasn't able to fit in any storyline stuff in January.

But I can assure you that the double feature next week should more than make up for the lack of storyline content (I think this might actually be the longest SINGLE storyline bit I've written, though I'd need to double-check all the stuff I wrote for the Entity's conclusion).

"I know you will find me, Linkara.You always find a way to succeed.Impossible odds have never stopped you.Mechakara, Lord Vyce, MissingNo., they could not beat you.Even though we are currently apart right now, that still won't change the fact that you are my friend.I will stand with you even to the very end.We will finish Mechakara once and for all, together."

Ah Gameboy Comics,nice too see something fun every now and then instead of some comics that insults our intellegence....though I'm with Linkara on the Trolling,I don't know whether to call it a coincidence a weird warning or just flat out Conspiracy Theory...because besides the two Gameboy Comics referencing planes and or the WTC their have been Movies and TV Shows(that used to do this all the time) that either showed a plane fly by over New York City or near the World Trade Center...or just say our Government was going to launch a false flag attack on the WTC(case in point one of the X Files episodes or a spin off to it mentioned such a scenario)but hey what do I know.

This comic is just silly and honestly, I wonder how long they ran with this. Did they go beyond Super Mario Land and feature Link and Zelda? I would love to see their take on that. Have Zelda interrupt Link when he is about to say something, thus keeping with the whole "silent protagonist".How much do you want to bet that as soon as Herman hung up, his mom was dialing the local mental-institution?

I think the funniest thing is that to get to NASA they would have had to pass Disney World. So getting the shuttle to get there faster is a really idiotic plan!Then they go into orbit, circle the planet at least once only to crash into the Small World ride. According to the girl's calculations it should have only taken 14 minutes to fly from Kennedy to Orlando. Gosh, these supposed conquerers are dumb.

All of these opponents who rise against you Lewis. It must be frustrating. Have you considered simply setting down that silly gun and stepping aside? The world will continue to turn I assure you. And perhaps, once all of these ridiculous defenders at long last come to their senses, the longed for peace and quiet will come to this poor planet.Or at least a reasonable facsimile there of.

Five cameos and a crossover!? Boy aren't you in high demand, Link! I'm happy for you, actually. ;)

Personally, I prefer the reviews themselves to the story bits, though yours tend to be better done than the other reviewers' at TGWTG. Heck, that Missigno storyline was epic! If anything, I'd ask that the story bits have more to do with you reviews eg. have Mechakara show up in a Terminator review or such.

As for this week's comic- do you get the impression the writer just didn't want to write about the actual game and just inserted the characters into a different story? Wouldn't be the first time something like that happens.

Heck, Super Mario Land itself was so different from the standard Mario game I can't help but suspect they just inserted him into a different game. Something like that actually happened with the second Super Mario game, which was actually a different game where they just replaced the main characters, apparently hoping to sell it better on the strength of Mario's popularity. Seriously, look it up.

I was sooo hooked on Super Mario Land when I was a kid. To bad I didn't know about this silly comic, I definitely would have checked it out. Good review. I wanted to make a comment, with all due respect. It does seem strange to end a storyline when we haven't seen any installments. How is that a story line? Not critizing you for not having time to ad story elements, just wondering how it can be called a story line in that case. Maybe call it something else? I wont say it is disappointing or anything until I see next week, so far you have yet to disappoint and it might be nice to have a cohesive story for once rather than a plot that drags for weeks (the entity story drove me nuts! But very satisfied) Look forward to next week, and nice job this week!

One for Suede, one for Diamanda Hagan, one for Philbuni, one for Cferra, and the last one I can't remember off the top of my head. I might be thinking of the podcast I did on Wednesday night with SFDebris.

"I wont say it is disappointing or anything until I see next week, so far you have yet to disappoint and it might be nice to have a cohesive story for once rather than a plot that drags for weeks (the entity story drove me nuts! But very satisfied) Look forward to next week, and nice job this week!"

While this is my shortest storyline (November through February), there have been seven installments so far:-All-Star Comics #8-The Fantastic Four #1-All-American Comics #1-Captain America Comics #1-Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan #1-Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan #2-Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan #3

Eight if you count the beginning of the "Top 15 Personal Favorite Jokes" where I put Pollo's old body on the bookshelf.

Now people are giving you a hard time for NOT including storyline bits? Geez, you can't win. I don't care one way or another just as long as next week is good. Also, I understand if you want to take a break from it given how exhausting it can be. I have an exhausting job too so I sympathize for your need for quiet.

Good episode; I am a little disappointed that Herman was not as pervy as he was in the first one cause he gave you a lot of material to work with. But good all the same.

SO looking forward to your crossover tomorrow with NC. I don't particularly hate Insurrection myself but compared to First Contact it is somewhat lacking and some of the morals and story make no sense if you think about it too much. Hell, even Nemesis made more sense.

The ad at the end mentioned the "horrors of Ancient Egypt"...but we did that joke last week so no reruns.

Not as bizarre as the last episode with Game Boy/Super Mario Land but still a lot of fun considering how crazy it was. It still is weird they finally go to space considering Tatanga is in control of the Space Zone when he's with Wario...but I guess he got the idea after seeing what happened this time around.

Of course when I think of the horrors of "Its a Small World", all I can think of is the end of the Spike Milligan episode of "The Muppet Show" where he just goes to sleep during the madness...he had the right idea.

I think part of what made the Gameboy comics fun is that it was the sort of series that readers went into knowing that it wasn't going to make much sense. Granted, that's not enough to stop it from being horribly stupid, but then again, that's also part of the charm..

I see in the comments that somebody was saying about how there was going to be a plot point where Herman was revealed to be crazy or something but the book got cancelled before then. That's kind of a shame, because if it had gone that far, I'd almost be tempted to go looking for this one just to see how it all went down.

As for the storyline, well, for me it's worth waiting for. I'd rather have it done well than done fast, especially since it sounds like you're already busy. Five cameos plus a full crossover for the next Nostalgia Critic? Wow, that's a lot, but worth the wait, I think.

"I don't have a problem with Mario being the hero because... well... being a hero of multiple stories is basically his calling. But there were more games for Gameboy then Super Mario land and some of them were even owned by Nintendo. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and the Donkey Kong Land trilogy, to name a few."

I hate to admit it, since I'm a HUGE LoZ fan, but Link's Awakening sucked like hell and alot of people knew it. The Donkey Kong Land games were alright, but not as popular as LoZ and Mario were.

Kinda says a lot when a character like that outclasses you as a villain.

I could mention that Nintendo have never really used Tatanga in any games after Mario Land 1 (I think he made a cameo in Mario Land 2 but don't quote me on that) but I think this comic might already give the impression as to why that was.

I used to have both these issues in a trade collection of multiple Nintendo comics (and I STILL don't know why I allowed my mother to give them away in a garage sale!!!), and yes, I do take pride in knowing that they're bad comics you actually like.

Great episode Linkara, there's nothing better than the hilarity induced by late 80's - early 90's Nintendo Propaganda.

That being said, I was not expecting any of the From the Earth to the Moon references, and the song at the end made me "mark out", I love that mini-series! Looks like I need to spend the $15 for a personal DVD copy.

One minor problem that I've been thinknig about with this video is your advice to Peach... to kick him in the balls.

Now we all want more proactive heroines in our comics, however it is never cool to call out the victim in an abusive relationship, kidnapping, rape, assault or any other kind of crime and tell them how they should have handled it.

It's called Victim Blaming... and it's a very common and very infuriating thing.

You see this every time a rash of violent crimes happen to women... the police spend more time foccusing on telling the women how to behave then going after the criminals, a recent ad campaign in parts of Canada has actually gone against this trend and finally targetted the abusers rather then those abused with the "don't be that guy" ad campaign: http://www.983flyfm.com/deejay/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Dont-Be-That-Guy-Campaign-Poster1.jpg

Now in Peach's case I can see why she doesn't try to escape... she's on a spaceship, surrounded by armed gaurds and hundreds of feet in the air (scaled from her miniscule perspective). So yeah, just because victim blaming is such a pervasive and problematic trope, I probably would have left the joke to just the advice for Tatanga.

I realize you were trying to do more of a Dr. Phil kinda TV psychologist stick... but it really doesn't work in this case, in my opinion.

Secondly, I'm well aware of victim blaming and I did consider it might be interpreted like that, but I don't really count this as victim blaming. Daisy continually tries the same tactic with Tatanga over and over and over, to plead for her freedom when she knows that it doesn't work. I'd appreciate more, though, as a character, if we actually got to see her thoughts and take into consideration something like, "curses, I'd try to escape, but I'm surrounded and I'd never make it three feet before being recaptured!" Instead, she comes off as a completely passive prop instead of a person. Tatanga has some sense of reason behind him, since he WANTS to please Daisy, so I just want to see her try different tactics instead of seeing the same conversation repeated multiple times over the span of several issues. They have this conversation TWICE in this book and I think had it THREE times in the first Gameboy issue.

It's not so much meant to be blaming her or chastising her for the continuation of her circumstances, but rather me trying to attack the poor writing in making her an uninteresting character with no agency or will, a character who will do the same thing again and again even when she knows it doesn't work.

Sorry, I knew it was Daisy... I sometimes type the wrong thing, the art does make her look quite a bit more like Peach then what Daisy looks like these days.

And I totally agree, that it is poorly written... I mean I also find it agravating that she just stands there and does nothing and is so passive. It's just the way the joke came across kinda struck a bad chord.

But with many other reveiwers I wouldn't have even bothred pointing this out, for I'm sure it would fall on deaf ears. I only did so because you're usually on top of matters of feminism like victim blaiming and I wanted to hear your reasoning behind the joke.

Thank you very much for taking the time to address my concerns, I appretiate it very much. I still probably would have taken issue directly with the writing rather then addressing the comments to the character herself if I was doing this review, but knowing where you're coming from really helps me understand the joke and feel better about it.

Sorry to double post... just one last thought. I think the reason why it bothered me so much is it's very much in vogue to hate female characters for whatever flaw they might posses: such as being a damsel in distress, and not take that anger out on the writing but the character themselves... In the Mario fandom Peach gets this a bit more then Daisy; I've heard her called a "stupid whore", or "vapid" or whatever other unimagintive epithet people can think of to fling her way.

You see Star Trek fans dumping on Uhura for being a useless character, though she wasn't. (even Denise Crosby was disatisfied with her character because she felt she was useless like Uhura)... Alot of Doctor Who fans curse any of the female companions, especially Rose (she's possesive) and Amy (She's a tease who can't make up her mind... even though she clearly has).

Very rarely do they blame the writing for these faults (real or imagined).

"So because the story line ends next week, does that mean you are finished with the contest entries?"

I actually met with Will and the Prop Lady earlier today and we looked through the Finalists! We're going to make our final decision in thenext two days and afterwards I'll make an announcement video, though I should note that the new body for Pollo isn't going to premiere in the storyline finale.

"Thank you very much for taking the time to address my concerns, I appretiate it very much. I still probably would have taken issue directly with the writing rather then addressing the comments to the character herself if I was doing this review, but knowing where you're coming from really helps me understand the joke and feel better about it."

Not a problem at all - it's important to keep me on my toes about these things. ^_^

That's a large can of worms you've opened, and unfortunatly this isn't the place to discuss the issues. It will suffice to say that I disagree with feminist opinions most of the time, yours and Linkaras included.

Keeping this on topic as I can. I think it is a valid criticism to point out the characters actions being dumb. Daisy made the choice not to act. Plus, judging by Daisy's actions later, it's clear she could at least resist, or do more to subvert Tatanga plans.

There is also the other question, and be honest here, would you have raised the same objection with a male character? I don't see complaining at Linkaras jokes at Herman's expense, despite the same objection of victim blaming applying there too.

For what is worth, when a Stephanie Meyer/Michael Bay/Frank Miller/Joss Whedon female is written poorly, it's definitevely Meyer/Bay/Miller/Whedon's fault.

And yes, Whedonites, I mean Whedon is terrible at writing women. He has only one emotion for women: anger. All his women can convey is "I'm angry". He is incapable of writing women feeling any emotion other than rage.

"I actually met with Will and the Prop Lady earlier today and we looked through the Finalists! We're going to make our final decision in thenext two days and afterwards I'll make an announcement video, though I should note that the new body for Pollo isn't going to premiere in the storyline finale."

Sweet, can't wait to see Pollo's new duds. Looking forward to next week. Also thanks, because of your Wrath of Kahn review and the Doctor Who Classic review you got me seriously hooked on both shows. So I guess thanks for introducing me to these awesome shows!

I want to stress the fact that I never watched or cared for either "Firefly" or "Serenity", so my only exposure to Whedon comes from "Buffy", "Angel", "Alien: Resurrection", and his horrible run on X-Men.

My comment is directly based on how he writes the character of Buffy. Buffy is written as completely incapable of feeling any emotion other than rage. She's always angry, always scowling, and she attacks everyone she meets without even bothering to find out if they are friendly or not.

That's what convinces me that Whedon sucks at writing women. Sure, Willow, Dawn and Fred are better-written, but Whedon made Buffy the centerpiece of her show, so that's how I measure his writing of women.

Also, there's Illirya, who writing-wise is just Buffy as an alien being. Sure, she displays other emotions when she imitates Fred, but never when being herself.

Also, I take notice that you only took issue with my mention of Whedon, which means we can all agree that Stephanie Meyer, Michael Bay and Frank Miller suck at writing women.

"There is also the other question, and be honest here, would you have raised the same objection with a male character? I don't see complaining at Linkaras jokes at Herman's expense, despite the same objection of victim blaming applying there too."

Yes it's possible for men to be subject to victim blaming as well... especially in cases where a man is sexually assaulted, while women have a hard time getting justice and being taken seriously over sexual assaults it's nearly impossible for a man. So men are very much subject to victim blaming...

Herman's stituation was slightly different though, he wasn't being held hostage on an air skiff thingy surrounded by armed gaurds much bigger then himself (one wonders why he couldn't just swat the bad guys like flys... the laws of physics say his mass being a few orders of magnitude greater would mean he'd win in a collision force = mass x velocity).

Herman was not kidnapped, he summoned a force of evil into the world then activley aided it, even if out of cowardice that's very different in my mind then being held captive and passivly waiting for rescue because you have no chance of escape.

Victim blaming can be taken to extremes, when I discussed this episode with a friend she thought Tannis shouldn't have been blamed for mentioning the Space Shuttle, or being bad at Super Mario Land... and Linkara's frustration with her was victim blaming... I often disagree with my friend on issues like these, and certainly did here... There are deffinitly times when it's okay to call a person (man or woman) out for making a bad choice that puts them in a bad situation. After all it's not victim blaming to say, "you failed the test, because you didn't study." Like Linkara's frustation at the woman in Star Trek 9 who couldn't swim... that's not quite the same thing as victim blaming...

The thing with victim blaming is it takes a situation where the victim has little control (kidnapping, rape, assualt) and criticizes them for making a bad choice, "If you didn't wear sexy clothing", "If you didn't go to the bar alone", "If you had been watching you drink more carefully", "If only you fought back!"

Now all of these, besides "if you hadn't worn sexy clothing," and "if only you fought back," actually are good ideas; those two however, not fighting back can sometimes ensure your survival and no one would have to dress a certain way, and it usually doesn't make a difference anyway. But the thing is even if you make a mistake that makes you an easier target: It is never your fault that these things happened, and instead of saying "oh you should have kicked him in the balls!" It's better to say to the villain, "don't kidnap people!"

The exiled one: I never was fond of the whole "Twilight - sparkly-glittery-vampire-thingie", and when I was forced to watch the first movie I could not help, but think "Hey, if you are ripping off of Inuyasha (a good anime, but a bit on the meh-side) for effects, you are in trouble."

Mikaela Banes (out of the works of Michael Bay) ... meh...

So, yeah, you can say, that the other guys n girls apparently not know, how to write women...

Although - you have to admit: It is hard to write good characters. I always have the fear to write sexist characters, because - it is really hard.

Y'know, when Herman (no Herman's Head jokes?) is being driven insane by a haunted Gameboy, giving said Gameboy to a couple of children is not necessarily an act of kindness.

Sabre: "It will suffice to say that I disagree with feminist opinions most of the time, yours and Linkaras included."

Uh... I don't think that will suffice. It seems like something that should either be backed up or not said (I'd have gone with the latter).

Ozaline:"It's better to say to the villain, "don't kidnap people!""Yes, but he's a villain. How likely is he to listen?OTOH, giving a few tips to a victim that say 'when you're in this situation, doing X might help you' is hardly blaming them.

"a recent ad campaign in parts of Canada has actually gone against this trend and finally targetted the abusers rather then those abused with the "don't be that guy" ad"There's one like that in Australia, too. Combined with the 'Violence against women: Australia's against it' ad, I'm left with the message: "Guys, you're abusive. Women never are. Oh, and violence against men? Australia's fine with it."

Great episode as always. Quick technical question about your site. How do you embed you videos into blogger and still get the advertisements? I currently have my own project I'm trying to launch, but it isn't displaying advertisements, and I think I read something that suggests the video wont display ads when embedded. Maybe I'm just jumping the gun, but any help from a vet to a beginner would be helpful.